After a fruitful discussion with Aurora, Sol left the cathedral; now armed with a weapon that would be really helpful for him in his future plans and machinations.
‘The power of secrecy and conspiracy, huh…’
This was a concept he had never even heard about. Even now he was trying to analyze that power as it wrapped around him, but it was clear that he did not have the necessary level to even start exploring the concept’s secrets.
This was why he was utterly confused.
How could someone so weak have a concept so mysterious and incredible?
He initially thought that she was a Reincarnator like him. But this would not explain her powers. He could only summarize that she was someone like Bastet. She should have been a false god or something of the like in her previous life and was now living a new life from zero after discarding her previous self.
This was the only way to explain her divinity in his opinion and the knowledge she wielded.
‘Well, I am glad I found her now instead of later.’
Outside of the simple fact that she would be very useful for his incoming plan… That girl was simply too dangerous to be left alone. He was glad that he had been able to subdue her now while she was still weak and helpless.
‘Let’s go and take care of matters, then…’
This had been a long quest for him, too long in fact, and finally, he could see the light at the end of the tunnel in the distance. Just a little more, and he will finally be able to reach his goals.
It had been tiring, frustrating, and full of anguish but he would soon be done with it and would be able to focus on other important things.
‘Should I travel a little? Go on an adventure or something? Maybe visit the demon kingdom or the elves for starters?’
He could even perhaps infiltrate Wratharis along the way. Of course, before all that he had to form a contract with Setsuna.
For now, he had so many possibilities and so many choices. Once he officially became the King of Lustburg he would be pretty restrained and unable to do anything else.
‘Ugh… Just thinking about what would happen once I sit on the throne is fucking hurting my brain already.’
He mused, wondering if he could ask Isis if she had any undead henchmen who used to be administrative workers before they died and were turned. Having tireless and absolutely loyal undead working on the paperwork seemed to be a good idea.
He fought to keep his facial expression from not showing a silly grin. He realized then just how much this situation had been weighing on his psyche and since he would soon be free from it all, he had never felt so much better and refreshed.
Even though he had stumbled on his path with what happened with the goddesses, he had all the cards in his hands now to accomplish his goals.
But he would not forget what was necessary. There were still works that needed to be taken care of.
‘I wonder how Pandora is doing right now.’
He was not so petty that he would become enemies with Pandora just because of her relationship with Invidia.
In the first place, the goddesses only saw the Blessed and most mortals as mere chess pieces that could be sacrificed at any given moment.
Pandora was just an innocent bystander in all this.
Even so, he would not hesitate in using her to further his goal. If before conquering the Mortal Realm had just been a chore, a task given to him by Luxuria to honor his contract— Now it was personal and he would not stop at simply conquering it on the surface.
He had been hesitant about implementing his plans until now but he would have no qualms about this now.
He would steal the entirety of the Mortal Realm.
He wondered what kind of expression Invidia would have then.
After all, it was one thing to steal a toy, but it was a totally different thing to steal the entire playground.
———
After Sol entered the Tower of Babel, he immediately felt Ambrosia’s eyes gazing down at him.
He looked up, remembering that he had a deal with the witches to work through.
“The terms will have to change, dear mother-in-law. I hope we can discuss about that later.”
Right now, he did not wish to deal with Ambrosia nor try to convince her to do anything. Pandora's presence alone had made the help of the witches of Salem completely useless in the current scenario.
He also didn’t care if Ambrosia finally made the resolution to stop being so passive about everything. It was time for her to stop playing God, but he didn’t want to infringe on that topic right now.
Still, he did not wish to show impoliteness to her. At the end of the day, she was a powerful demigod, and more than anything, she was Medea’s mother and his future mother-in-law. One must never be disrespectful to their mothers, be it in name, relation, or blood. Unless it was absolutely necessary that is.
Her presence and affixed gaze lingered for a little while before vanishing after leaving a few last words in their wake.
<<I am willing to help>>
He was a little surprised by her words. But he showed none of it on his face, forcefully suppressing the joy that he was feeling from her words.
It was another great news for him. One that made his grand plan has an even higher chance of succeeding.
“Your Highness. You seem to be in a good mood. Was the meeting with the goddesses a success?”
“No. It was a complete and utter failure.”
Milia, who had approached as soon as she received information about Sol’s arrival was quite surprised by his reply. After all, the difference between his minute facial expression and his words was too big of a contrast for her to take it as anything other than weird.
She hesitated whether she should be continuing her next line of words or not. In the end, she just blurted out what was in her mind in a voice of unbridled concern…
“Are… Are you alright, Your Highness?”
She wondered if he had gone a little crazy because of all the anger he must be feeling right now or if he was simply trying to act strong to not let her worry.
“I have never been better.”
“Oh my…”
Milia was startled and her eyes opened wide into saucers when she felt Sol’s rough and strong hands wrap around her waist before he gave her a deep kiss.
This was the first time he had shown such a display of emotions and the maids that were mingling around all blushed or moved their eyes away at such a raunchy scene, not knowing where to look.
After all, while Sol had been very sexually active in the tower, he was always careful about where he was and how he conducted himself with his lovers.
Soon, Milia had no time to think about his sudden passionate behavior as she let herself go and answered the kiss back with unequaled fervor.
“Ohhh…”
She ignored the voices of surprises the maids were directing at her brazen and unexpected behavior. She was simply too deeply entranced by her lover’s touch to care about anything else. A pair of hot lips mashed against hers and the feeling of his tongue prying her teeth apart before tangling with hers in a game of lustful pleasure. She was losing her mind already from the feelings this kiss was invoking in her.
‘Hah…’
She felt reluctant when they had to part from each other but the words he muttered in her ears calmed down the rising heat that was growing inside of her heart and the steamy honeypot.
“I will take care of you later. Shall we do it in your room, then?”
All colors drained from her face at his suggestion.
“Hum… *Ahem* *Ahem* My room is…”
She was speechless. She did not want to lie to him but…
‘Ugh…Do I have no choice but to sacrifice my collection once again?’
This was perhaps the second greatest dilemma our dear maid has ever faced in her life since she began serving Sol as a maid.
Sol patted her head before looking around, “Where is my guest?”
Milia came to herself after hearing his inquiry. She was still shaken about the world-ending choice that had once again been given to her but she would not let this stop her from working.
“She is currently resting in the quarters I prepared for her. Would you like to meet her?”
“Of course. We will use the main office as the meeting place. I think I should be swamped with paperwork soon.”
“Clara has taken care of most of the administrative disorganization caused by the death of those rebels. I believe now things are working even more efficiently than before.”
“Hmm. Good. I really need to give her a reward later on.”
He smiled and walked away. Clara was basically a divine gift with her talents in administration. He had to make sure she would feel taken care of.
Once he reached the office, he took a moment to appreciate how calm it currently was.
The bookshelves on the wall were all fully furnished, and the large table was indeed full of paperwork but everything in it was very well organized, and there was even a certain scent of flowers floating in the air.
Approaching the chair, Sol sat down and released a sigh of relief.
He was tired. So tired. But he still had work to do. No matter how much he trusted Clara, it was impossible to give her the royal seal. He had to read the most important issues and approve of them himself. One after another.
‘I need to have a talk with Tyr later.’
He thought as he looked at the paper about the war supplies. He was no guru. He knew how to fight but war was best left to those who actually had the skills and the experience for it.
It was when he was looking at the logistics related to expanding the wall of Lustburg that someone knocked on the door.
“Your Highness. I brought Lady Anastasia with me.”
“She can enter.”
The door opened as Milia let the succubus enter the room before closing the door behind her as she left from the room.
Leaning back on his chair, Sol smiled at the downtrodden-looking woman. Even though she was showing a smile, he could feel that her experience after entering the Tower had been quite perplexing and agonizing for her.
“Take a seat, please. I hope your quarters are to your liking. We were quite in a hurry, you see…”
“Haha. Do not worry. They are perfect.”
“Hmm… I heard you met some of the residents of the tower, I hope none of them offended you.”
Anastasia's lips twitched. She thought that in this situation she was the one who had to be careful about not offending them.
“Hahaha….”
Smile grinned at her awkward laugh. But soon, the smile left his face as he became utterly serious. He had teased her long enough. Now was the time to start the negotiations.
“Dear Queen Pandora of the Kingdom of Envilya, why don’t we do away with all pretense and start discussing seriously about the future of our kingdoms.”
Even though he was done playing the game, he had to admit that her expression of surprise when he uttered her true name brought him a certain sadistic joy.
One had to have fun whenever one could. Such were the subtle joys of life.
(AN: #StopbullyingPandora. Haha. Well, we always need a punching bag. Now things are going to move fast. This arc took longer than I initially planned for it to be. Way longer. It wasn’t easy. There were highs and lows and some simply mids along the way. But thanks to your support I reached #28 on all-time trending. This is the closest I have ever been to entering the Top 25 ranking. Kinda makes me regret I didn’t try to write two chapters a day ngl. But if I did try to do something like that I might have died because of stress. Now I will use my money to go buy an ergonomic chair and a mechanical keyboard. It’s time to upgrade my gears before my back starts protesting from all the aches I’ve been causing it.)
